This chapter focused largely on different types of assessment and how they can be used in the classroom. The three different types of assessment it goes over are pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments.. It also outlines how these different types of assessment can be planned out in order to have an adaptive classroom. Stemming from what we learned about backward design it suggests that first we figure out what our summative assessment will be so we know where we want students to end up. Next we give a pre-assessment to find out where are students are starting from in terms of knowledge on that given topic. Finally we can plan formative assessments between the two as we now know where our students are starting from and where we want them to be. Planning assessments in this manner not only affords us the opportunity to make sure our assessments are adaptive and representative of class understanding but it also allows us to ensure that we cover the "big picture" of our lesson plan. By adapting along the way in our formative assessments we ensure that our summative assessment i.e., the understanding that we wanted the class to come away with stays intact rather than a summative assessment adapted from where the class left off in formative assessments.
Synthesis
Cooper Lavigne
A lot of the class felt that the chapter covered too much information, because of this many of us highlighted different things. Despite this there were many overlapping takeaways. The important themes that we all took away definitely all seemed to stem from assessment. Some of us talked about the concept of giving test questions away at the beginning of the course. The positives some outlined were that students know exactly what is expected of them which is crucial for understanding. While others outlined some of the negatives of this concept, and how it could incentivize students only paying attention to certain aspects of the lesson. I think the general concept we all derived regardless of our position on that was that student's come away with an understanding of the material which should come with the our summative assessment. In certain cases a student knowing questions on a final test may give them an opportunity to ponder large questions and concepts without a finite answer to focus their tunnel vision on, in other cases it may be problematic because answers may not be open for interpretation and giving the answers away would lend itself to students memorizing rather than understanding. The range of opinion on this matter I believe actually emboldens one of the overarching themes which is one of adaptive assessments. We all understand our material so we can employ whatever strategies we see fit to get our students from point A to point B and these strategies will likely differ from classroom to classroom.
This chapter covered so much and, in my opinion, was super overwhelming. Its goal was to cover the principles of assessment, but I feel like it did way more than that. One of the biggest things I got out of this chapter, aside from all of the assessment talk, was that it is important for lessons and units to be fluid and changeable. Sometimes, things do not always go the way they are planned and it is imperative that teachers are flexible enough to work though these unexpected changes. For instance, I might have a lesson planned out, but upon getting to know my students, I realize that for many of them, the formative assessment I have planned is not challenging enough for some students and is too far ahead of the pacing for other students. Because of this, I would need to adjust the assessment to be perhaps a bit more open ended, allowing for both extremes to display their knowledge in a way better suited to their current content knowledge. I might have the excelling students add a layer to the assessment, in order to challenge them and encourage them to think about the material in a new way. For the slower paced students, I might be able to take off some layers, allowing them to focus on where they are currently in their content knowledge and preparing them for the next step without overwhelming them or asking them to go too far beyond their current content knowledge. By doing this, I am able to effectively alter my lesson plan to accommodate both student extremes, while still having a middle ground for those who are where I had anticipated most students would be when I was creating the lesson.
Sarah
This chapter talked a lot about assessments and how to plan assessments. One of the main points in the chapter was that students achieve more when they have a clear picture of the expectations. This chapter also related a lot to stage one of creating a unit. It talked about in what order a teacher should plan assessments. The order that the book suggests is to first plan summative assessments, then pre-assessments. The last step is to plan formative assessments. The book also suggests that a teacher should plan for frequent formative assessments. The author says that the important thing is that the students learned the material. This is where the chapter connects to stage 1. The chapter talks about essential questions and understandings. The chapter then goes on to talk about making assessments authentic. I learned that there is two steps in this process. The first is to make sure that the assessment is close to how students will apply their learning in real world applications. The second is that the assessment needs to be authentic to how students are learning. One of the things in this chapter that really stood out to me is that in order for an assessment to be valid it must be varied and done over time. This chapter on assessment will definitely impact the way that I make lesson plans. I know that it is good to write out the assessments when I am making lessons plans. This chapter will also influence my formative assessments. I will incorporate them often into my lesson plans this way my students and I know how they are doing during the process of learning the new material.
Lydia
The main point in this chapter is that you have to combine your differentiated teaching approach with assessments. One important thing about this is that you have to determine if a student was having an off day when he or she was taking a test or was not ready for the presentation that was due that day. Something that will help me determine if a student is not ready for that assessment will be observing their actions. It is also important that I tell other teachers that this particular student may be having problems so they will be ready for the same thing in their classrooms. As a teacher I must also have the assessments already clearly planned out and have enough detail in the rubric that the student can understand or make the test suitable for everyone to engage their brains. One strategy that was mentioned that I thought was interesting was to give the students the test on the first day of the unit and use it as a study guide. This would affect my class in a positive way because they would know the types of questions that would be on a test. This would also keep students engaged during the lesson because they would want to find out the next answer on the test. I think this could be a really cool tool to use while teaching because it would give students examples of answers to look for while also learning. The only thing that I would have to do is change wording of questions or write similar questions on the test that they are going to be graded on.
Cory
Personally, I really enjoyed the analogy at the beginning of this chapter. When you look at something from multiple different angles, then it looks like multiple different things. In the analogy, half a class looked a picture by focusing on one spot and saw an old woman. Then another half of the class looked at the same picture but focusing on a different spot and saw a young woman. This analogy plays beautifully into assessment. When it comes to assessment, you can see different things when you look at different assessments, just like when these people looked at different parts of a picture. This is why you can’t just look at one piece of assessment. You need to look at multiple, and see them as a photo album rather than a snap shot like chapter 5 in UBD explained. But another major factor is that you need to vary assessment. If you use the same kind assessment, you may see some kids succeed even though they don’t really understand the material they are being tested on. For example, I am very good at reasoning when it comes to multiple choice answers. There have been some tests that are only multiple choice questions that I have gotten around a 90% on even though I knew none of the material on the test. This because I can normally reason my way down to 2 answers, and from there I could logically get an answer based on what I vaguely remember. This kind of test really didn’t truly tell how well I really knew the information, because I would have failed some solely multiple choice tests I have taken if they were open ended.
Dominick
I liked this chapter especially because of an example that was given during the reading. Two different groups of students were told to look at a picture and tell the teacher what they saw. The teacher told the first group to focus on one specific area. The students studied it for a little while and then determined that the picture looked like an older woman. The first group left and next group of students was ushered in. They were told to focus on a different part of the picture as well. After a short time the group concluded that the picture was of a younger woman. This is a perfect example of students different understandings. Students are going to perceive lessons, ideas and assignments differently. They will have their own interpretation of what certain aspects of the class entail. This chapter once again talks about helping different students to understand what is being taught. The chapter suggests that having students taking different tests to determine what sort of intelligence they are is a good idea. Gauging your classroom is important when trying to teach. When talking about comprehension it is vital that students understand the material. If they are not being taught in way that makes sense to them they are going to struggle with the material. Another big idea in this chapter that caught my attention was the KUD model. Know, understand and do. having assessments to see where your class is at is a great way of finding what the teacher needs to go over.
Laura
One question that arose in my mind very early into this chapter was: if we as teachers are supposed to be very clear about what information the students are going to be “tested” on or assessed on, how do we show students that the content they are learning is important for reasons beyond the test or assessment? On page 21, Wormeli says, “it may be radical, but go ahead and give students the end-of-unit test on the first day of teaching the unit… when you teach the unit and mention an answer to one of the test questions, students will perk up and listen, elevating the information to importance.” While I understand Wormeli’s point in that by introducing the test material at the beginning of a unit, students will immediately know what to expect and what to look for, thus giving them more incentive to pay attention as the unit moves forward. It’s kind of like showing the students the backward design process as you are giving them an outline of the desired goals, and it also makes it more likely that they will succeed on the test. However, I do not feel that this strategy comes without drawbacks. The biggest concern I have about introducing a unit with test questions is that it could make students feel as though the only reason they are learning the content is to that they can use it on the test, not because it has significance outside of the classroom. I also worry that the students may be more likely to “zone out” during parts of the unit that do not pertain directly to the questions on the test because they will not find the information important and/or worthwhile simply because there aren’t any test questions about it. For these reasons, I will be very careful if I ever chose to use this method in my classroom and make sure that I show students how what they are learning is important can be applied in the “real world.”
Rhi
I really like how this class is focused on backward design. A lot of teachers struggle to find relevance with their lessons or find a true meaning for why they teach on a topic. If you start with why, then a more meaningful product will come out in the end. It’s very important to give students checklists and deadlines in this age group, so that they can develop the skills they will need to time manage, plan, and create a well-done finished product. This goes for papers, presentations, etc. I know that for me it’s a lot easier to get things done when I plan out when and how I will get something accomplished. Instead of saying I’ll do it at some point, make notes that clearly state when things need to be done because if not they will not get done. The question of, “Will this be on the test?”, is one of my least favorite questions. A student should not have to ask that because if it’s not going to be tested on and if it isn’t of real importance to the students learning than why was it even brought up or discussed when there are so many other things that need to be fit in to a class. Again with assessments, using assessments to improve your classroom environment is so important. A lot of teachers will hand out tests and leave it up to the student to figure out what’s going on because you got a D on the test, but we have way more stuff to cover in class that are more important that your understanding of the subject… sorry we have to move on. The dreaded “see me” that teachers write on tests and papers is so downgrading for a student.
Katelin
This chapter covered a lot of important material to know as being a teacher. What stands out to me in the beginning is the example about the picture that is shown to the students two different ways, to create a bias between them. Then it uses that as a segway to explain that the students we will get, will be “biased” already. This was extremely important to me because this seems to be a trend in math where students do not like it, and as teachers, we need to try to change the bias to good and help them as much as possible. I love that it used the comparison of teaching being like coaching because I have always thought of this. Coaching them and rooting for them, sometimes from the sidelines, is definitely what we do. By assessing the students, we are using a “coaching nurturing tool” (20). I was extremely surprised when the book was talking about how the students should always know what is going to be on the test ahead of time. Then when it said if a student shouted out this is the answer, everyone write that down, and we as teachers should be proud, it surprised me. I do not know if the book is saying we should always give our tests out ahead of time or what it really entails by them knowing what is on the test. I understand practice tests and then actual tests being a little different numbers but basically the same, but I just don’t understand giving them the actual tests ahead. I feel like this creates easy issues for cheating and such.
Sara
In chapter three of Fair isn’t always equal, we learn about the importance of assessment and the different types of assessments. There are three types of assessments, all equally important. By starting with the last assessment, the summative assessment, we understand what the ultimate goal is. Where we want students to eventually end up, so we can then decide the best way to get students there. Once we have the summative assessment we can then design the pre-assessment, and the formative assessment. Both of these latter assessments are also important in the learning process. Pre-assessments allow us to see where our students are stating and somethings we may need to spend additional time on. The formative assessments allow us to keep up with our students and ensure they are learning the material.
One thing I found very interesting and that I could incorporate into my classroom is giving students the final test of a unit at the beginning. This way they will know ahead of time what is going to be expected of them and help them better focus and understand the material. By changing some of the numbers I would then be able to use the same test that the students have become accustomed to over the unit. In math I think the formative assessments are especially important. It is very easy for a student to fall behind on a concept, and then not be able to catch up because they need that concept to move on. By using formative assessments to ensure that students are grasping each concept it will allow students to confidently move on to the next topic.
Shane
Not only was chapter 3 the longest, but it was to me filled with the most information. It was hard for me to find just one or two things to relate to and write about, but since a lot of it was important we have seen it in other areas of readings before. I enjoyed the part about avoiding fluff. As teachers we have to be careful not to assign busy work or things in the fluff category. We need to figure out what will be useful and hold the most impact to our students. As a student I prefer a variety of assignments not things that just take up time and don’t really show a benefit. On the other spectrum I am sure that there are some students that enjoy assignments that can just be open ended and you can fluff your way through it. As a beach ball I like open ended things where I can do what I want, but some assignments restrict that. As a teacher it will be my goal to try to incorporate both types of assignments. A substantive assignment here and there and then some fluff once in a while to really get kids minds going. The next part of the chapter that was very important would be as a teacher understanding there are going to be good and bad days. Students are going to have bad days in life, test and other things so I need to set fair standards that can compensate for them all.
Cooper
The overarching theme of this chapter was surrounding assessment, how to use it ,and what it can tell us. One concept it talked about was pre-assessment which is essentially a way to gauge entry knowledge on a given topic. By understanding where students are when entering a class, teachers are then better equipped to find methods to accurately address the student’s needs. This concept of using assessment as a tool is consistent throughout the chapter. As students we often look at any type of failure when being assessed as something to be ashamed of or something that will be met with a penalty, as teachers it’s important to avoid fostering this kind of learning environment. If a teacher gives a test to assess a classes’ understanding of material and the entire class does poorly in a certain area or even on the entire test the teacher can use that as an indicator that they aren’t doing an effective job in conveying the material to their students. Individual struggles in assessment can be an effective indicator of changes that can be made by the educator to better help their students as well. If some part of the material is not clear to a particular student and there are patterns of struggle with assessment you can speak with the individual student and discuss strategies to better help the student understand the content. I think making the distinction of using assessment as a means to better understand a classes’ grip of the material vs as exclusively a means to grade students is an important one to make.
Abstract
Cooper LavigneThis chapter focused largely on different types of assessment and how they can be used in the classroom. The three different types of assessment it goes over are pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments.. It also outlines how these different types of assessment can be planned out in order to have an adaptive classroom. Stemming from what we learned about backward design it suggests that first we figure out what our summative assessment will be so we know where we want students to end up. Next we give a pre-assessment to find out where are students are starting from in terms of knowledge on that given topic. Finally we can plan formative assessments between the two as we now know where our students are starting from and where we want them to be. Planning assessments in this manner not only affords us the opportunity to make sure our assessments are adaptive and representative of class understanding but it also allows us to ensure that we cover the "big picture" of our lesson plan. By adapting along the way in our formative assessments we ensure that our summative assessment i.e., the understanding that we wanted the class to come away with stays intact rather than a summative assessment adapted from where the class left off in formative assessments.
Synthesis
Cooper LavigneA lot of the class felt that the chapter covered too much information, because of this many of us highlighted different things. Despite this there were many overlapping takeaways. The important themes that we all took away definitely all seemed to stem from assessment. Some of us talked about the concept of giving test questions away at the beginning of the course. The positives some outlined were that students know exactly what is expected of them which is crucial for understanding. While others outlined some of the negatives of this concept, and how it could incentivize students only paying attention to certain aspects of the lesson. I think the general concept we all derived regardless of our position on that was that student's come away with an understanding of the material which should come with the our summative assessment. In certain cases a student knowing questions on a final test may give them an opportunity to ponder large questions and concepts without a finite answer to focus their tunnel vision on, in other cases it may be problematic because answers may not be open for interpretation and giving the answers away would lend itself to students memorizing rather than understanding. The range of opinion on this matter I believe actually emboldens one of the overarching themes which is one of adaptive assessments. We all understand our material so we can employ whatever strategies we see fit to get our students from point A to point B and these strategies will likely differ from classroom to classroom.
Table of Contents
Cheyenne
This chapter covered so much and, in my opinion, was super overwhelming. Its goal was to cover the principles of assessment, but I feel like it did way more than that. One of the biggest things I got out of this chapter, aside from all of the assessment talk, was that it is important for lessons and units to be fluid and changeable. Sometimes, things do not always go the way they are planned and it is imperative that teachers are flexible enough to work though these unexpected changes. For instance, I might have a lesson planned out, but upon getting to know my students, I realize that for many of them, the formative assessment I have planned is not challenging enough for some students and is too far ahead of the pacing for other students. Because of this, I would need to adjust the assessment to be perhaps a bit more open ended, allowing for both extremes to display their knowledge in a way better suited to their current content knowledge. I might have the excelling students add a layer to the assessment, in order to challenge them and encourage them to think about the material in a new way. For the slower paced students, I might be able to take off some layers, allowing them to focus on where they are currently in their content knowledge and preparing them for the next step without overwhelming them or asking them to go too far beyond their current content knowledge. By doing this, I am able to effectively alter my lesson plan to accommodate both student extremes, while still having a middle ground for those who are where I had anticipated most students would be when I was creating the lesson.Sarah
This chapter talked a lot about assessments and how to plan assessments. One of the main points in the chapter was that students achieve more when they have a clear picture of the expectations. This chapter also related a lot to stage one of creating a unit. It talked about in what order a teacher should plan assessments. The order that the book suggests is to first plan summative assessments, then pre-assessments. The last step is to plan formative assessments. The book also suggests that a teacher should plan for frequent formative assessments. The author says that the important thing is that the students learned the material. This is where the chapter connects to stage 1. The chapter talks about essential questions and understandings. The chapter then goes on to talk about making assessments authentic. I learned that there is two steps in this process. The first is to make sure that the assessment is close to how students will apply their learning in real world applications. The second is that the assessment needs to be authentic to how students are learning. One of the things in this chapter that really stood out to me is that in order for an assessment to be valid it must be varied and done over time. This chapter on assessment will definitely impact the way that I make lesson plans. I know that it is good to write out the assessments when I am making lessons plans. This chapter will also influence my formative assessments. I will incorporate them often into my lesson plans this way my students and I know how they are doing during the process of learning the new material.Lydia
The main point in this chapter is that you have to combine your differentiated teaching approach with assessments. One important thing about this is that you have to determine if a student was having an off day when he or she was taking a test or was not ready for the presentation that was due that day. Something that will help me determine if a student is not ready for that assessment will be observing their actions. It is also important that I tell other teachers that this particular student may be having problems so they will be ready for the same thing in their classrooms. As a teacher I must also have the assessments already clearly planned out and have enough detail in the rubric that the student can understand or make the test suitable for everyone to engage their brains.One strategy that was mentioned that I thought was interesting was to give the students the test on the first day of the unit and use it as a study guide. This would affect my class in a positive way because they would know the types of questions that would be on a test. This would also keep students engaged during the lesson because they would want to find out the next answer on the test. I think this could be a really cool tool to use while teaching because it would give students examples of answers to look for while also learning. The only thing that I would have to do is change wording of questions or write similar questions on the test that they are going to be graded on.
Cory
Personally, I really enjoyed the analogy at the beginning of this chapter. When you look at something from multiple different angles, then it looks like multiple different things. In the analogy, half a class looked a picture by focusing on one spot and saw an old woman. Then another half of the class looked at the same picture but focusing on a different spot and saw a young woman. This analogy plays beautifully into assessment. When it comes to assessment, you can see different things when you look at different assessments, just like when these people looked at different parts of a picture. This is why you can’t just look at one piece of assessment. You need to look at multiple, and see them as a photo album rather than a snap shot like chapter 5 in UBD explained. But another major factor is that you need to vary assessment. If you use the same kind assessment, you may see some kids succeed even though they don’t really understand the material they are being tested on. For example, I am very good at reasoning when it comes to multiple choice answers. There have been some tests that are only multiple choice questions that I have gotten around a 90% on even though I knew none of the material on the test. This because I can normally reason my way down to 2 answers, and from there I could logically get an answer based on what I vaguely remember. This kind of test really didn’t truly tell how well I really knew the information, because I would have failed some solely multiple choice tests I have taken if they were open ended.Dominick
I liked this chapter especially because of an example that was given during the reading. Two different groups of students were told to look at a picture and tell the teacher what they saw. The teacher told the first group to focus on one specific area. The students studied it for a little while and then determined that the picture looked like an older woman. The first group left and next group of students was ushered in. They were told to focus on a different part of the picture as well. After a short time the group concluded that the picture was of a younger woman. This is a perfect example of students different understandings. Students are going to perceive lessons, ideas and assignments differently. They will have their own interpretation of what certain aspects of the class entail. This chapter once again talks about helping different students to understand what is being taught. The chapter suggests that having students taking different tests to determine what sort of intelligence they are is a good idea. Gauging your classroom is important when trying to teach. When talking about comprehension it is vital that students understand the material. If they are not being taught in way that makes sense to them they are going to struggle with the material. Another big idea in this chapter that caught my attention was the KUD model. Know, understand and do. having assessments to see where your class is at is a great way of finding what the teacher needs to go over.Laura
One question that arose in my mind very early into this chapter was: if we as teachers are supposed to be very clear about what information the students are going to be “tested” on or assessed on, how do we show students that the content they are learning is important for reasons beyond the test or assessment? On page 21, Wormeli says, “it may be radical, but go ahead and give students the end-of-unit test on the first day of teaching the unit… when you teach the unit and mention an answer to one of the test questions, students will perk up and listen, elevating the information to importance.” While I understand Wormeli’s point in that by introducing the test material at the beginning of a unit, students will immediately know what to expect and what to look for, thus giving them more incentive to pay attention as the unit moves forward. It’s kind of like showing the students the backward design process as you are giving them an outline of the desired goals, and it also makes it more likely that they will succeed on the test. However, I do not feel that this strategy comes without drawbacks. The biggest concern I have about introducing a unit with test questions is that it could make students feel as though the only reason they are learning the content is to that they can use it on the test, not because it has significance outside of the classroom. I also worry that the students may be more likely to “zone out” during parts of the unit that do not pertain directly to the questions on the test because they will not find the information important and/or worthwhile simply because there aren’t any test questions about it. For these reasons, I will be very careful if I ever chose to use this method in my classroom and make sure that I show students how what they are learning is important can be applied in the “real world.”Rhi
I really like how this class is focused on backward design. A lot of teachers struggle to find relevance with their lessons or find a true meaning for why they teach on a topic. If you start with why, then a more meaningful product will come out in the end. It’s very important to give students checklists and deadlines in this age group, so that they can develop the skills they will need to time manage, plan, and create a well-done finished product. This goes for papers, presentations, etc. I know that for me it’s a lot easier to get things done when I plan out when and how I will get something accomplished. Instead of saying I’ll do it at some point, make notes that clearly state when things need to be done because if not they will not get done. The question of, “Will this be on the test?”, is one of my least favorite questions. A student should not have to ask that because if it’s not going to be tested on and if it isn’t of real importance to the students learning than why was it even brought up or discussed when there are so many other things that need to be fit in to a class. Again with assessments, using assessments to improve your classroom environment is so important. A lot of teachers will hand out tests and leave it up to the student to figure out what’s going on because you got a D on the test, but we have way more stuff to cover in class that are more important that your understanding of the subject… sorry we have to move on. The dreaded “see me” that teachers write on tests and papers is so downgrading for a student.Katelin
This chapter covered a lot of important material to know as being a teacher. What stands out to me in the beginning is the example about the picture that is shown to the students two different ways, to create a bias between them. Then it uses that as a segway to explain that the students we will get, will be “biased” already. This was extremely important to me because this seems to be a trend in math where students do not like it, and as teachers, we need to try to change the bias to good and help them as much as possible. I love that it used the comparison of teaching being like coaching because I have always thought of this. Coaching them and rooting for them, sometimes from the sidelines, is definitely what we do. By assessing the students, we are using a “coaching nurturing tool” (20). I was extremely surprised when the book was talking about how the students should always know what is going to be on the test ahead of time. Then when it said if a student shouted out this is the answer, everyone write that down, and we as teachers should be proud, it surprised me. I do not know if the book is saying we should always give our tests out ahead of time or what it really entails by them knowing what is on the test. I understand practice tests and then actual tests being a little different numbers but basically the same, but I just don’t understand giving them the actual tests ahead. I feel like this creates easy issues for cheating and such.Sara
In chapter three of Fair isn’t always equal, we learn about the importance of assessment and the different types of assessments. There are three types of assessments, all equally important. By starting with the last assessment, the summative assessment, we understand what the ultimate goal is. Where we want students to eventually end up, so we can then decide the best way to get students there. Once we have the summative assessment we can then design the pre-assessment, and the formative assessment. Both of these latter assessments are also important in the learning process. Pre-assessments allow us to see where our students are stating and somethings we may need to spend additional time on. The formative assessments allow us to keep up with our students and ensure they are learning the material.One thing I found very interesting and that I could incorporate into my classroom is giving students the final test of a unit at the beginning. This way they will know ahead of time what is going to be expected of them and help them better focus and understand the material. By changing some of the numbers I would then be able to use the same test that the students have become accustomed to over the unit. In math I think the formative assessments are especially important. It is very easy for a student to fall behind on a concept, and then not be able to catch up because they need that concept to move on. By using formative assessments to ensure that students are grasping each concept it will allow students to confidently move on to the next topic.
Shane
Not only was chapter 3 the longest, but it was to me filled with the most information. It was hard for me to find just one or two things to relate to and write about, but since a lot of it was important we have seen it in other areas of readings before. I enjoyed the part about avoiding fluff. As teachers we have to be careful not to assign busy work or things in the fluff category. We need to figure out what will be useful and hold the most impact to our students. As a student I prefer a variety of assignments not things that just take up time and don’t really show a benefit. On the other spectrum I am sure that there are some students that enjoy assignments that can just be open ended and you can fluff your way through it. As a beach ball I like open ended things where I can do what I want, but some assignments restrict that. As a teacher it will be my goal to try to incorporate both types of assignments. A substantive assignment here and there and then some fluff once in a while to really get kids minds going. The next part of the chapter that was very important would be as a teacher understanding there are going to be good and bad days. Students are going to have bad days in life, test and other things so I need to set fair standards that can compensate for them all.Cooper
The overarching theme of this chapter was surrounding assessment, how to use it ,and what it can tell us. One concept it talked about was pre-assessment which is essentially a way to gauge entry knowledge on a given topic. By understanding where students are when entering a class, teachers are then better equipped to find methods to accurately address the student’s needs. This concept of using assessment as a tool is consistent throughout the chapter. As students we often look at any type of failure when being assessed as something to be ashamed of or something that will be met with a penalty, as teachers it’s important to avoid fostering this kind of learning environment. If a teacher gives a test to assess a classes’ understanding of material and the entire class does poorly in a certain area or even on the entire test the teacher can use that as an indicator that they aren’t doing an effective job in conveying the material to their students. Individual struggles in assessment can be an effective indicator of changes that can be made by the educator to better help their students as well. If some part of the material is not clear to a particular student and there are patterns of struggle with assessment you can speak with the individual student and discuss strategies to better help the student understand the content. I think making the distinction of using assessment as a means to better understand a classes’ grip of the material vs as exclusively a means to grade students is an important one to make.